New School, New Friends, and New Love?
by Ambenya777
Summary: AU: Hope is a freshmen at his new school. He has been put in all the accelerated classes but really doesn't expect to make any friends. After bumping into a girl with rose-colored hair he becomes interested in her. How will his high school life go? Will he be able to make friends or maybe more? Please read and review. First FFXIII fanfic of mine.
1. Chapter 1: First Day of High School

**Hello everyone!**

**I'm new to the FFXIII fandom and have been watching my brother play all the games. Anyway this is my first fanfic for this fandom. I've written plenty on other things but they are not posted here.**

**So this is the most cliche setting for any alternative universe. If you all want me to list all the character in this and their age please tell me and I'll post it at the beginning of the next chapter.**

**Please read and review! Constructive criticism is welcome. I also welcome any ideas you guys want to give me.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy XIII and would probably ruin it if I did.**

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Hope didn't want to go to school. He was never popular and was always consider a nerd or geek.

This year was his first year and day of high school and not only was he new to the school but he has been put in all the accelerated classes. This would obviously mark him as a nerd and send any potential friends with his classmates away. It happened every time since he got into school just because he was too smart compared to the rest.

"Hope! Sweetie, get up or you will be late for your first day of high school! If you don't get up I will come up there and pull you out of bed myself!" His mom, Nora yelled from the bottom of the stairs at her son.

The kid got out of bed knowing his mom would full well march into his room and drag his butt out of bed.

This is the life of Hope Estheim. At fourteen and put at the top of his class he has been considered a child prodigy from a young age and was given the option to skip grades countless times but every time he was offered it he would reject it stating that he just wanted a normal life. So here he was today getting ready for his first year of high school. He wore his new school uniform and got everything ready before heading down for breakfast. Not really caring if his hair was a mess.

"So it seems you did decide to get up today. Sorry Dad had to leave early for work today but he wishes you the best on you first day." His mom said with an apologetic look on her face.

"It's fine. It's not really a big deal just another day and another year." Hope said with a shrug not trying to let his father not being there bother him.

"Hope... This is a big day it's the first day of your high school life. You really should be more excited about it. Now hurry up and eat breakfast, I already packed your lunch." His mom smiled handing him his lunch leaving the subject alone for now.

He quickly finished his food and picked up his lunch before heading to the door. "Thanks Mom! I love you!" Hope said with a sweet smile on his face before leaving.

'I wish I could have a good first day but with the way I am I doubt that would ever happen.' Hope thought to himself as he walked to his new school Eden High Academy.

With his head down he didn't see the person in front of him and bumped into them falling down. "Hey kid watch where you are going it's not safe when you don't pay attention to where you are walking." A strict feminine voice said.

Hope quickly looked up at the girl he ran into. She had rose-color hair and sharp blue eyes that stared at him. She seemed tall at least taller than him. Her hair fell in curls over her left shoulder and her skin was pale but not sickly pale. He couldn't help but think she looked beautiful and almost angel like.

"Hey are you going to get up or just sit on the ground all day? You wouldn't want to start to your first day of school late." The girl spoke again giving the boy a stern look. That's when he realized he had arrived at school and that this girl was wear the girl uniform for the school.

"Oh right... Sorry for running into you like that..." Hope apologized with a bow before smiling softly.

"It's fine just make sure you notice what is going on around you." She said before turning around going over to a group of people.

One of the guys was huge with light blonde hair who seemed to be laughing loudly at something that a girl who looked like the girl that he just ran into but with her hair tied in a side ponytail hanging over her left shoulder and was shorter. Hope couldn't help but think they looked like sisters.

Another girl this time with red hair in curled pigtails and green eyes seemed to be giggle at what the pink haired girl just said. The next person he noticed was a girl telling the big guy to shut up. This girl had bronze skin was the taller of the girls standing together. Her hair was dark brown and wavy.

A small boy with blonde hair just laughed at the woman who was complaining about the first guy being loud. Another guy who had blue hair just flipped it and looked at his friends who were starting to laugh more at the dark hair woman complaint. A another big guy this time with dark skin and hair that looks like flames just ignored everyone. The last person in the group that the pink haired girl walked into had short black hair and was just telling everyone they were stupid for laughing while laughing herself.

'Those must be her friends... They all seem to get along well.' He thought to himself as the woman he ran into reached up and smacked the loud guy upside the head.

"I hope I can make some friends." The boy said with a sigh before walking into the building.

The first place he had to go to was his homeroom 1-A. His homeroom teacher was a man named Sazh Katzroy, who had an afro that made the guy seem taller than he probably was. After doing introductions they all headed down to auditorium for an assembly.

After a greeting from the staff, student council president, and the school chairman who was a man named Dysley, the club presidents got to speak a little about their clubs.

For the most part Hope zoned out on what was being said. He knew he had to pick a club to join but he didn't really care for clubs. He just wanted to get through high school and get through life. Hope was suddenly drawn out of his thoughts when a new voice came out of the speakers.

"Good morning, everyone. If you do not know who I am, my name is Claire Farron but I insist that all of you call me Lightning. If you do not than I will deal with you personally. I am the President of the Disciplinary Committee. I abide by the rules and so should the rest of you. I don't care what your excuse is you follow the rules. If you want to join the committee do not think it will all be rainbows and sunshine because I assure you it is not. I will not try to convince you to join as it is your own choice but you still need to follow the rules and those rules do include joining a club of some sorts." The girl Hope met earlier said in an authoritative voice that resounded in the auditorium.

"The Disciplinary Committee?" Hope mumble to himself thinking about it. He didn't know why but part of him wanted to join just to get closer to this woman named 'Lightning'.

After everyone was leaving they began talking about what club they wanted to join while he knew exactly what he wanted to join.

After school he went to his teacher to ask where the Disciplinary Committee's club room was. "You want to know about the Disciplinary Committee? Well I'll be... I guess that little miss's speech did influence someone to join..." Sazh said chuckling to himself about it all before getting up.

"Okay I'll show you but trust me this will not be a walk in the park. Trust me I'm the adviser for the club." Sazh said surprising the student a little who was following him.

"Thank you Mr. Katzroy! I really appreciate your help." Hope responded with a sincere smile on his face.

"Boy, you are too polite. Please call me Sazh everyone else does." Sazh said with a grin to the kid before stopping at a door.

"Ah, okay Mr. Sazh!" Hope's smile brightened a bit as he stopped as well.

"Well here we are!" Sazh said opening the door only to hear to people arguing.

"Sis, let me ask you this. How the hell do you expect people to join after your speech up there?" The big guy Hope saw earlier complained to the pink haired girl.

"First of all do not call me Sis, I am not your sister, Snow. Second I expect them to join of their own free will. What is the point of trying to convince them?" The woman who Hope now knew as Lightning responded back with annoyance.

"You might be my sister one day. Anyway you try to convince them to join and then they join of their own free will." Snow said with a sigh thinking about everything.

"You didn't join of your own will. If I remember correctly Serah is the one who made you join." Lightning said destroying Snow's defense.

Sazh decided to speak up before Snow dug himself into a bigger hole. "Hey, you two, I hope you guys are still looking for new members. We got one wanting to join right here!" Sazh than moved over for them to see Hope.

"Hello, my name is Hope Estheim and I was wondering if I could join." Hope said with a small smile trying not blush at the thought that Lightning looked prettier up close.

The two people stared at Hope before finally agreeing to let Hope join. "Welcome to the club, Hope! I'm Snow Villiers and over here is my sis, Lightning!" Snow said motioning to the rose-colored hair.

"He's not my brother. He's just dating my sister. Anyway it's nice to meet you." Lightning said with a nod to the boy who just grinned.

'Maybe high school won't be so bad...' Hope thought to himself.


	2. Chapter 2: A Fun Lunch!

**Hello hello!**

**So I would like to say thank you to anyone who read this! I know it's been a little over a week but college is kicking my butt. **

**Now time for replies!**

**Guest-san 1: Here is your update! Sorry it took so long...**

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**The characters ages are:**

**Hope - 14 years old. Grade 9/1st year high school**

**Lightning - 17 years old. Grade 12/4th year high school**

**Vanille - 16 years old. Grade 11/3rd year high school**

**Fang - 17 years old. Grade 12/4th year high school**

**Serah - 16 years old. Grade 11/3rd year high school**

**Snow - 18 years old. Grade 12/4th year high school**

**Maqui - 15 years old. Grade 10/2nd year high school**

**Yuj - 16 years old. Grade 11/3rd year high school**

**Gadot - 18 years old. Grade 12/4th year high school**

**Lebreau - 17 years old. Grade 11/3rd year high school**

**Sazh - 40 years old.**

**Nora - 41 years old.**

**Bartholomew - 44 years old.**

**Dajh - 6 years old. Grade 1/1st year elementary school**

**It should also be noted that the school in this fanfic is a combination of American high schools and Japanese high schools.**

**Sorry the long Authors Note... Anyway please read and review. Follows and favs are welcome to!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own FFXIII or anything related to it. **

**Hope you enjoy the read~**

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**Chapter 2: A fun lunch!**

Hope was sitting alone in the cafeteria eating his lunch. Just like he predicted Hope still hasn't made any friends since his first day of school. No one wanted to be his friend since they figured he would make them seem dumb. Even as member of the Disciplinary Committee he didn't talk to any of them outside the meetings.

'At least I can see Lightning up close as a member.' Hope thought to himself as he ate his food looking at Lightning's group of friends or more like her sister's group of friends.

The school had somewhat of a hierarchy like any other school out there. There were the popular kids, the geeky kids, the bad kids, and the rejects.

Lightning's group was weird though some of them were popular some were rejects. The popular ones were Serah, Snow, Gadot, Lebreau, and Yuj. While the rejects were Lightning, Vanille, Fang, and Maqui. According to what Hope heard Vanille use to be popular too but something happened.

Hope was about to take another bite of food when he felt someone tap his shoulder. He turned to see the girl Hope now recognized as Vanille.

"Hey, what are you doing all alone?" Vanille asked in a friendly voice.

Before Hope could say anything he was being dragged up by the arm by the girl. "Come on! You can come join us for lunch!" The hyper girl said as she let Hope get his food before dragging him over to the group of friends.

"Hey welcome to the club kid! Glad you could join us today!" Snow said with a grin.

"Thank you, Snow. Sorry to bother you guys." Hope said respectfully as he sat down.

"You're not a bother at all, Hope." Snow responded smiling proudly.

"Let's introduce you to everyone." Vanille said as she motioned to Serah.

"Hello I'm Serah. I'm Lightning's sister and Snow's girlfriend. My best friend is Vanille. It's very nice to meet you." Serah said with a very sweet smile to the young boy.

"I'm Maqui. I hope we can get a long well." A blonde guy who looked around the same age as Hope.

"The name's Yuj and might I say you are looking pretty stylin' today." Yuj said with laugh at the kid who laughed as well.

"Hey, I'm Gadot and Snow is like a brother to me even if he's an idiot." The guy with hair like fire said with a chuckle.

"I'm Lebreau. Please excuse these idiots. It's really good to finally meet you after hearing Snow talk about you." A black haired girl said with a smirk.

"How are you doing, kid? I'm Fang and just so you know you better not be thinking of stealing my girl, Vanille. 'Kay kid?"Fang said with a smirk on her face not really threatening the boy.

"I promise not to steal Vanille from you. Anyway, thanks for letting me sit here today." Hope responded with a kind smile.

"You can sit here with us from now on!" Snow grinned widely at the freshman.

Hope looked at everyone surprised and thought about thanking them when suddenly he remembered Lightning. "Are you sure? Lightning might not want me to sit here..."

Serah looked at the poor boy with a assuring smile. "Don't worry about Claire, she won't mind if you sit here. Right, Claire?" She asked surprising the boy who turned to quickly look at the older girl.

"Serah, I told you to never call me Claire again. It's not my name anymore. Anyway, I don't care what you do kid or where you sit kid." Lightning said as she sat down in her seat which was across from Serah and just so happened to be next to Hope.

"Oh okay then..." Hope responded sitting back in his seat with his cheeks turning a little pink.

After a little awkward silence Snow decided to speak up after Serah elbowed and motioned for him to say something. "Soooo, Hope, I heard you were put in all the advance classes."

"Uh... Yeah, I've actually been given the choice on whether to skip grades or not. I chose not to since I just want to live a normal school life." Hope responded sheepishly to the older group.

Everyone seemed interested in what he claimed, in fact even Lightning's ears perked up at this which only Serah and Fang noticed.

"Wait so if you had chose to skip grades, what grade would you be in exactly?" Yuj asked as he tilted his head to the side.

"Well the max they said I could skip would put me in 12th grade this year so..." The silver-haired boy said with a blush looking down as he scratched the back of his head.

Everyone looked at him wide-eyed for a second before reacting. "EHHHH?!" Everyone but Lightning said collectively however Lightning looked at him amused.

"Wait, you're that smart? Man, maybe I should go to you for help on my homework." Snow laughed out at the younger boy.

"Even if someone as smart as him helped you, chances are you would still be too dumb to get the right answer." Fang said with a smirk to the big blond guy.

"I want to see you answer one of the questions on the 12th grade homework just to see you do this." Vanille said with a smile to the boy.

"Uh sure... If someone can write down a problem from the homework on a spare sheet of paper I wouldn't mind doing it." Hope responded as he looked around the table.

Before anyone else did anything Lightning pushed a piece of paper toward him. "That was the hardest question on the math homework from last night." She said looking at the younger Disciplinary Committee member who looked at her surprised.

"Okay then..." Hope said as he took the paper and got a pencil and began solving the problem.

After 30 seconds he was done with the problem. "Here you go all done!" Hope said with a huge smile handing the paper back.

Lightning looked the problem over and checked it to make sure it was correct. "Nice, kid. You managed to get the answer correct in under a minute." The rose-haired woman responded with a slightly surprised look.

Serah leaned over to look at the question which was answered. "Wasn't that the same question you were stuck on last night, sis?" She asked noticing the question seemed familiar.

Before Lightning could say anything in response the bell had rung to signify that lunch was over and they all had to go back to class.

As Hope gathered his stuff and began heading out the door with his new friends he heard the cool and icy voice of Lightning. "Hope, don't forget that tomorrow you are to get here early to take morning watch." The seventeen year old said to the fourteen year old.

"Okay I'll be here as soon as I can." Hope said with a bright smile on his face.

As they all were walking off no one but Serah notices the soft smile on the older Farron's face.

_'Looks like sis is interested in that Hope guy... I guess I'll just ask her later tonight'_ Serah thought to herself before going to her class with Vanille.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful for everyone. Hope seemed to be welcomed into the mixture group of friends who didn't seem to take his intelligence as a threat and were wanting him to teach them. Well... mainly Snow.

"I'm back!" Hope called into the house loudly with a huge grin on his face.

"Oh welcome home sweetie! My, my you seem to be in a good mood today." Nora responded as she looked out from in the kitchen.

"Well I might have made a few new friends today..." The fourteen year old said sheepishly as he took off his shoes.

"Really! That's great sweetie. So what are they like?" Nora asked as she went back into the kitchen with Hope coming in to sit at the table.

Hope told his mom all that happened to him today at lunch and everything. He explained each personality of the people he sat with that day.

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"So sis, Hope seems nice..." Serah said trying to somehow get her older sister to talk to her about the new kid that joined their group.

"Yeah, I guess he is. Better than your oaf of a boyfriend is..." Lightning said as she sat at their kitchen table doing homework while Serah cooked dinner.

"Sis, I'm sure if you give Snow a chance it would be fine. I mean I had him join the Disciplinary Committee so you two could get along." Serah said with a sigh continuing on dinner.

"And I keep telling you I will never get along with him. When will you learn this, Serah?" Lightning asked focused on her homework.

Serah just sighed at her stubborn older sister. _'She'll come around eventually. I'm sure of it.'_ Serah thought to herself.

Lightning felt proud that she managed to distract her sister from asking her about the new kid that Lightning was interested in. _'I'll deal with her lecturing about that another day... I'm curious to see how morning watch for him is going to go though...'_


	3. Chapter 3: Morning Watch

**Hello Hello~**

**I'm sorry it's been so long. I tried really hard to update this on time but a lot of personal things got in the way. I'm thinking of starting another fanfic but this one is a Vanille X Fang fanfic but with HopeRai as the second pair. Tell me if anyone is interested in this.**

**Now time for replies~**

**Panda: Thank you for the review. I understand that school can get in the way most of the time since that's what keeps me from updating my fics.**

**Thank you all for the views, reviews, follows, and favs.**

**I would really like to hear everyone's thoughts on this so pretty please leave a review.**

**Now on to the fanfic!**

_**Disclaimer: I do not own FFXIII or anything related to it. If I did then there is no way it would be this big.**_

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**Chapter 3: Morning Watch**

It was a beautiful day and Hope's first day on morning watch. He got up really early in the morning. In fact it was so early he was up at the same time as his father.

"Hey son, you're up early this morning." His father, Bartholomew, said with a slight note of surprise in his voice.

"Yeah, I have morning watch as a member of Disciplinary Committee." Hope responded as he sat down for breakfast.

"Disciplinary Committee?" Bartholomew questioned slightly before Nora walked in from the kitchen.

"Good morning, Hope. Sorry Bartholomew, I forgot to mention that Hope decided to join the Disciplinary Committee and has made a lot of new friends." Nora said with a smile to the two men sitting at the table as she walked back to finish making breakfast and lunches for the two guys.

"Well it's good that you are getting along with people there." Bartholomew said as he took a drink of coffee.

"Yeah sure..." Hope said with indifference to his father as he looked at the clock to check the time. He had about a half hour before having to leave.

The two guys sat in silence for a few minutes before Nora appeared again with breakfast. Hope was thankful that he didn't have to sit in awkward silence with his dad any longer than necessary.

"Thanks, Mom." Hope said with a smile before he began eating.

"So, Hope, I was thinking that you could bring your friends over for dinner this Saturday. I would really like to meet them all." Nora said as she gave Bartholomew his breakfast and began eating her own.

"I'll ask them but I don't know if they can make it. Well I'm done, I better get going. Love you both!" The silver-haired boy said as he got up and grabbed his lunch before heading out the door.

Hope wanted to leave as soon as possible, partly because he wanted to get to school as soon as possible and partly because he didn't want to spend any time sitting with his parents in awkward silence.

Hope had a good relationship with his mom but him and his father were very distant. _'It's because he's always working that he never spends time with us. He doesn't even try to get to know me now! I doubt he even cares...' _Hope thought to himself sighing sadly a little.

When the 14 year-old made it to the school he hurried up and put all his stuff away in the classroom. The following thing he did was go to the club room to see if someone was there to give him instructions about what he had to do for morning watch.

Hope opened the door slowly just in case someone was in the room and didn't want to be messed with. "Um... good morning?" Hope said once the door opened fully to revel Lightning sitting at the table focused on what looked like paperwork.

"Good morning, Hope. You're just on time the other students should all be arriving soon. So, why don't I go over what you are going to do today?" The rose-haired girl said with less authority in her voice today then in the past weeks as she looked up at the boy.

"Sure, I was kinda hoping someone would be here to explain everything." Hope laughed a little when he said that.

"Well, lucky for you Serah and I always come here early. Mostly because she is a member of the student council." Lightning responded in a teasing tone and a slight smirk.

When Hope saw Lightning's look after she made that statement he couldn't help but blush. _'She looks kinda cute like that... Wait! This is Lightning you are thinking about Hope. She would beat you if she knew you thought that.'_

Hope shook his previous thought out of his head before sitting down at the table with Lightning. "Anyway, so what exactly am I doing?" Hope asked his cheeks still a little pink from his earlier thoughts.

"Well Hope, what you are going to do is very simple. You will take the name of anyone disobeying the rules. It could be because they are bullying someone or because they are disobeying the dress-code. If you write them up you have to give me the reason they are written up. All the names and reasons should be written down on this piece of paper." Lightning said as she slid a paper on a clipboard over to Hope who just took it with a nod.

"Do you understand what you have to do? If you do you can just give me the report during lunch but the sooner the better." The rose-haired girl asked with a serious look on face.

"Yes! I will try my best. I guess I should go get started than." The green-eyed boy said before getting up and heading outside to do his job.

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Hope stood outside the school watching as students entered the gates. He wrote down a few names and talked to the people who he wrote down and told them what they did wrong.

So far it was as kids who disobeyed the dress-code which didn't really bother Hope much. Everything seemed to be going fine until he turned around and bumped into a big guy with black hair and green eyes. He looked to be in Snow and Lightning's grade which was 12th grade.

"Hey brat! Watch what you are doing!" The guy yelled to Hope who got up from the ground.

"You should apologize to the boss!" A slightly smaller guy with short red hair and bright yellow eyes. He was probably a 11th grader.

Hope didn't say anything as he looked at the two guys who were yelling at him as he noticed a look of recognition cross the third guys face.

"Hey! You're that first year brat who is in advanced classes and in the Disciplinary Committee, right?" The third guy with blond hair and purple eyes. He also had black rimmed glasses and looked like he was a 11th grader as well.

"Oh? So you're Lightning's new lackey? Now that I think about it you were sitting with her at lunch yesterday. I bet you follow her around like a lost puppy." The leader laughed out with a smirk.

Hope just stood there saying nothing to the three guys. He was use to this kind of treatment since he had been bullied at his last school.

"You know she's such a bitch. I bet she's thinks you're just a burden. Why don't I just show her how weak you are?" The guy raised his fist up and punched Hope in the face for no reason.

Hope finally decided to speak up. "I hope you know that it's against the rules to hit other students and curse. I'm sorry for bumping into you earlier but that gives you no reason to hit me or call Lightning a bitch. I'm going to have to write you up." Hope finished looking at the guys as he held up his clipboard with papers to write their names.

"What did you say?! How dare you act all high and mighty with me! Come on boys let's show this little brat here that we aren't messing around." The black-haired guy commanded as he went in for another punch.

Hope flinched as he was hit in the jaw again by the big guy. He was use to being bullied but he was never ganged up on before. If he was being honest, Hope was scared and really wanted to run away.

Before, Hope could make a move to run he felt his feet get knocked out from underneath him and fell on his back.

"Ugh..." The silver-haired boy groaned in pain from the impact before he felt himself getting kicked in the side by the blond guy with glasses.

After a minute of beating on Hope the three guys stopped on looked at the boy. Hope was curled up and coughing harshly. He had scratches all over his body and had a small trail of blood on the side of his mouth.

"In cases you still want our names, I'm Cyril Akihabara." The leader said with a smirk on his face.

"I'm Damien Harajuku." The red-haired guy said with a huge grin on his face.

"And I'm Rèmi Shinjuku." The blond guy said as he pushed his glasses up on face.

"I hope you can remember to write all those names for your leader, girly boy." Cyril said one more time before he turned around laughing with his lackeys.

Hope groaned in pain again before he reached for his clipboard and wrote their names down for his report.

_'I need to give this to Lightning. She did say the sooner she got this the better... Plus I should go to the infirmary after giving her this.' _Hope thought to himself as he got up still in a lot of pain and limping to the clubroom.

He knocked on the door while leaning against the frame before he fell over. When he heard a voice command him to come in he slowly opened the door. He opened it just a little to where the person int the room could only slightly see his hair, when he heard a cheerful and manly voice. "Oh, it's just you Hope. I thought Sis told you to give her the report at..." Snow trailed off when he caught full sight of Hope.

Hearing Snow get quiet Lightning looked up from her work to see what made the normally talkative man shut his mouth. The first thing she noticed was the way Hope looked.

"Yeah she told me to give her it at lunch but she mentioned the sooner she gets this the better." Hope said showing the clipboard before sliding down the door-frame to the floor coughing.

The poor boy was covered in bruises and seemed to be barely able to stand. Lightning could see that he was really hurt she wanted to yell at him but lucky her Snow did it for her. "Hope! What the hell happened to you? Who did this?"

"You can read about this in the report I did for the watch. Lucky for me they gave me their names..." Hope mumble trying really hard to breathe even if it hurt.

Lightning got up from her spot at the table and headed toward Hope. She took the clipboard from Hope and noted the names down in her memory before giving the clipboard to Snow.

"Snow, inform Dysley of what has happened and ask him how he wants to handle this. I'm taking Hope to the infirmary so I can fix him up." Lightning said in a serious commanding tone.

"Of course! I'll tell you what he decides on. Please feel better Hope." Snow said with a sympathetic look in his eyes before going off.

"Come on. We need to get you some help." The pink-haired girl said as dragged Hope to his feet with one of his arms of her shoulder.

Hope couldn't help but notice that she smelled nice when she was this close to him which caused him to blush. The whole way to the nurse's office was silent as neither one knew what to say.

_'Why am I helping this kid? He's not important or anything well... besides the fact that he is prodigy but since when have I cared about that. Well he's not a bad person and he is hurt... I really hope that Dysley will let me take care of those guys instead of the staff.' _Lightning thought to herself as they arrived at the infirmary.

They noticed that the nurse wasn't there much to Lightning's annoyance since it was the nurse's job to be there on time so she can take of the students.

She sat Hope down on the first bed in the office as she went to get some bandages and stuff. "Take off your shirt." Lightning commanded with a serious look on her face but that didn't stop Hope from being embarrassed.

"Wha-what?" Hope said blushing brightly at Lightning's words.

"I said to take off you shirt. I need to check to see if you have any bruises underneath your shirt since I'm assuming they didn't just hit your face." Lightning responded with a hint of teasing that Hope caught which made him blush more.

"Oh yeah... They really did a number on me. Heh..." Hope said really embarrassed as he began to take his shirt off for her to look.

Lightning looked at the bruises and scrapes up closely and touched a few that seemed the worse which made Hope flinch and hiss in pain.

"Hmm... Well, you're pretty beaten up but I'll patch you up." Lightning said before she quietly began to bandage him up.

The green-eyed boy couldn't help but blush since this was the first time a girl ever patched him. _'Especially one I have a crush on... Wait! I don't have a crush on Lightning! I mean sure she is pretty, beautiful even. Aww hell she's down right gorgeous. She's kindhearted even if she comes off as cold. She didn't have to help me but she did... Damn... I do have a crush on her...' _Hope blushed even brighter at the realization he came to.

Lightning noticed the shade of his face and looked at him worried. "Hey, you're not getting a fever now are you?" She asked looking closely at the boy who turned a deeper shade of red and backed away from her.

"No, I'm fine. In fact, I think I can go back to class now." Hope responded about to get up before being pushed down on the bed again this time being made to lay down.

"Oh no, you are going to rest right here. I'll tell Sazh that you are resting here after getting hurt. He'll understand. I'll leave a note for the nurse to tell them that you are laying in this bed. Just focus on getting better." Lightning might have been trying to comfort him but she made it sound more like an order.

"Okay... Hey Lightning?" Hope asked as she was about to leave.

When she turned her head he decided to continue talking. "I'm not a burden to you, am I?" He asked hating how insecure he sounded.

"No, but if you don't get better you will be. How about this? When you are all healed up I'll teach you some self-defense techniques I learned through the years. That way if this happens again then you can defend yourself." Lightning said with a hint of a smile on her face.

"Yeah... Thank you, Lightning." Hope said in a sincere tone that caused Lightning to feel flushed a little by the tone.

"You're welcome, Hope. Also, please call me Light." She said as the last thing before leaving the room hiding her pink cheeks.

"Thank you, Light." Hope said right before falling asleep on the bed with a smile, feeling happy that he had gotten closer to Lightning or Light as she said to call her.

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**I really enjoyed writing this chapter! I'll give anyone who can guess how I came up with the names of the OCs that appear in this chapter from a virtual hug and cookie. Next chapter another character from the game will be introduced and I will give anyone who guesses the character right a virtual bunny.**

**If you see any errors or incorrect spellings please tell and I'll correct them.**

**Once again please review! I will give everyone hugs~**

**Until next time, thank you and love you all~ ^_^**


	4. Chapter 4: Recovering and Friends

**Hello Hello~**

**Sorry it took me awhile to update. First I hit a snag in writing and then I got sick with a cold. It also might be awhile for the next chapter since I'm going to NYC for a concert and won't be able to work on the fanfic much.**

**Now time for replies~**

**Guest 1: You are correct the names come from regions in Tokyo and actually you were the first and only one to guess. There are actually three new characters introduced or mentioned here. One of which is Jihl Nabaat. I actually decided to add her in because of your comment so thank you for the idea. So a virtual hug, cookie and bunny for you!**

**Thank you all for the reviews, follows, views, and favs.**

**I love knowing what everyone thinks of this and am open for constructive criticism too so please leave me a review. **

_**Disclaimer: Still don't own FFXIII or any of the characters. I just play the games and write fanfics for them.**_

**Now on to the fanfic!**

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**Chapter 4: Recovering and Friends**

Hope suddenly heard someone moving around the room he was sleeping in. He slowly woke up to see if it was the nurse.

"Oh, did I wake you up?" A soft young voice said to the boy. Hope looked at the small girl who had long blue hair. She noticed she was around his age and was wearing the school uniform so she couldn't be the nurse.

"No, it's fine... where's the nurse?" Hope asked looking around the room before he looked back at the girl.

"She had to go do something. She told me not to bother you as you sleep. Reading this note left by Miss Lightning, I assume you're Hope Estheim?" The girl asked as she picked up a piece of paper that Lightning left for the nurse.

"Yes, I'm Hope. Who are you and what time is it?" The silver-haired boy asked very confused about this girl.

"I'm Paddra Nsu-Yeul and now morning break time just started." Yeul responded with a smile on her face.

"I guess I've been out of it for a while now... So, what are you doing here?" Hope asked with a confused look on his face.

"Oh, I'm a member of the Health Committee. Since I started this year I've been helping out here. I'm a first-year just like you." The blue-haired girl said to Hope who was surprised she knew his next question.

"What about you? What happened that caused you to be in the nurse's office all morning?" Yeul asked with interest that surprised the boy.

Hope looked away from the girl who asked the question."Well, these guys beat me up pretty bad. I was going to go back to class after Light fixed me up but she said I had to rest."

Yeul laughed at Hope's explanation about everything. "Well, Miss Nabaat said that you should rest until lunch. But I can keep you company if you like."

"Sure." Hope responded with a huge smile on his face.

The two talked and laughed until break was over and Yeul had to go back to class but she promised to come back during lunch. Hope was just really happy to have made another friend.

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It was lunch time so Lightning and the rest of the group decided to go get Hope for lunch.

"I hope that he is feeling better. From what Lightning and Snow said it sounds like he took quite a beating." Vanille said with a worried look on her face.

"I'm sure the kid is fine if he listened to Sunshine here and rested during the day." Fang responded with a reassuring smile.

"I think if Hope would listen to anyone it would definitely be Sis." Serah said trying to reassure Vanille as well.

When they got to the door they heard talking between two people. It sounded like Hope and a girl were talking about something interesting.

"Do we go in?" Snow asked clueless about what to do.

"Sounds like he might have a friend in there with him." Maqui chimed in as he listened in through the door.

"Or a girlfriend." Yuj said in a joking tone. All the girls and Yuj noticed Lightning grip what she was holding harder obviously irritated.

"Man if he has a girlfriend already then I'm going to need him to give me some pointers." Gadot laughed out not noticing Light becoming more and more irritated.

"Hey! What about me? I'm your girlfriend, in case you forgot." Lebreau began lecturing Gadot for what he said.

Serah noticed that Lightning was carrying two lunches instead of just her's and decided to question it. "Hey Claire? Where did you get that other lunch and who is it for?"

Lightning blushed and looked away from her sister. She quickly moved past everyone and knocked on the door hoping someone would open the door soon.

After a few seconds a girl answered the door with a soft smile. "Oh, I guess you are all here for Hope." Yeul said with a look at the group.

Hope looked toward the door and saw his group of friends looking at him. "Hey, you guys!" He said cheerfully as he got up and went to the door.

"Hey kid! Ya feelin' better than earlier?" Fang asked Hope looking at his injures which looked just fine compared to what Snow said earlier.

"I'm just fine now. Oh, I'd like you all to meet Paddra Nsu-Yeul." Hope introduced Yeul to everyone with a cute smile.

"Hi..." Yeul answered shyly looking down as she felt everyone's eyes on her.

"Is it okay with you guys if Yeul and her friend sit with us at lunch? She's really cool and can even tell your fortune if you want." Hope said very fast looking directly at Lightning thinking her opinion was the most important.

Everyone decided it was okay for her and her friend join them making Hope very happy that he couldn't help but grin. '_He looks so happy even though he got beaten up earlier. He kinda looks cute when he grins like that... Hang on, Lightning. You did not just think he looked cute. Let's just push that thought out of your mind. It's not important, at the moment his health is what is important._' Lightning brushed the thought off like nothing.

"I'll meet you guys at the lunchroom then. I'm glad I get to introduce you to Noel by the way Hope. I feel like you two are going to be great friends." Yeul said to Hope before beginning to leave.

Light payed no attention to the girl until the girl walked right by her and whispered something only the two of them could hear. "It's not good to hide your feelings, Miss Lightning..."

Lightning was stunned for a second before turning around to see the girl already down the hall.

Hope noticed a slight distressed look on her face as did Serah while everyone else talked. Hope looked down to see what Light was holding her hands.

"Light, is that my lunch?" He asked as he noticed her holding two lunches and one that looked a lot like his.

Lightning snapped out of her state of shocked to look at what the silver-haired boy was pointing at and noticed that it was in fact his lunch.

"Yes, it is. I figured that you might want it but might not be up to getting it yourself." The rose-haired girl said as she handed Hope his lunch.

"Thanks Light. I really means a lot to me." The boy said sweetly as he smiled and looked into Lightning's crystal blue eyes with his emerald ones.

Lightning couldn't help but blush at sincerity. To her he seemed so... handsome at that moment and it made her heart race. She quickly turned around with her face calm and eyes closed before she replied. "Don't read too much into it. It's not a big deal." After she said those words she began walking to the cafeteria with the rest following her.

Hope stood there a little hurt by what she said and looked down at his lunch now in his hands. Serah noticed that he wasn't following them and decided to cheer him up.

"Don't worry about Sis. She's just not use to people but I can tell she has taken a liking to you." The younger of the Farron sisters said with a caring smile.

"I'm not sure if she really likes me..." Hope responded looking down at his feet sadly. He just realized his feeling for Lightning that day but he felt he was already rejected.

Serah giggled a bit from what Hope said. "Light would never treat someone's wounds if she didn't like them or bring them their lunch. She won't even do that for her friends which makes you already higher than everyone else in the group. Well, everyone except me but I don't think I count since I'm her sister and all." She finished with a slight chuckle that made Hope chuckle as well.

"Thanks Serah. It's good to know that I'm actually cared about." Hope said smiling again feeling a lot better after Serah's reassuring and began following the others while still talking to the girl.

"Yeah, Claire is a very caring person but she is to simply put it, socially awkward. She is beautiful which I'm sure you noticed." Hope blushed at Serah's statement as she looked over at him before she continued.

"She has plenty of fans who would give anything to date her but because of her cold and harsh personality she scares them all away or just flat-out rejects them. Those guys that beat you up today all asked her out at some point and she rejected them. They felt insulted and I guess when they saw you two getting along they decided to get back at her by hurting you." Serah looked at Hope with an apologetic look that made him feel like she was worried about how he would react.

"Those guys were just jerks and don't deserve someone as amazing as Light anyway." Hope said in a determined tone that made Serah know just how the boy felt.

"Yeah, but I do feel bad for them... Mr. Dysley is letting Lightning handle their punishment instead of the staff. Usually he lets the staff handle it but sometimes he'll let the Disciplinary Committee handle the situation simply because he finds it more amusing. In this case it is obvious that, as Snow put it, Lightning is pissed. So the guys who did this to you will be wanting the staff to handle it instead because Lightning's going to hurt them the same they hurt you or worse." Serah finished as they finally reached the lunchroom and the rest of their friends.

"You two sure did take your time getting here." Fang said as the two sat down in their spots.

"I was just getting to know Hope here. He is just the sweetest person you could ever know." Serah said with a giggle as she and the rest of the group noticed Hope blush.

"I can totally see that. He does seem to have that way about him." Fang nodded in agreement to what Serah said.

"Aww, and he's so cute when he's blushing! If I was that way I would totally go for a guy like Hope." Vanille chimed in causing Hope to blush more and Fang to become a little jealous.

"Well lucky for me you don't swing that way." Fang said wrapping her arm around Vanille and pulling her close.

"No PDA Fang. You may be my friend but that doesn't mean you can break the rules." Lightning said as she began to eat barely glancing at the two girls.

"You're no fair, Sunshine. Just because you're single means you have to ruin the fun for the rest of us." Fang shot back sticking her tongue out at the older of the Farron sisters. Everyone laughed as Lightning just rolled her eyes.

Before anyone could say anything they heard someone clear their throat. They looked to see who it was and saw Yeul with a brown-haired blue-eyed guy who no one seem to know.

"I hope we're not interrupting anything. But if I remember correctly Hope offered to let us eat lunch with you all." Yeul said with a soft smile to everyone at the table.

"Of course you can sit right beside Hope if you both want." Serah offered with a smile as Hope welcomed the two to sit next to him. Lightning could help but feel a tinge of irritation when the blue-haired girl sat on the other side of Hope.

"Thank you all for letting us join. This is my childhood friend Noel Kreiss. We grew up together." Yeul said before everyone began introducing themselves to the newcomers.

"You two are welcome to sit with us at any time." Snow said with a grin on his face.

"So that makes three first-years, one second-year, four third-years and four fourth-years in our little group." Lebreau said as she sat back thinking about it.

"Yeah, that's all of us. Sorry Maqui you're all alone." Hope said with a little laugh.

"It's all cool. Just makes me more unique. So Noel, have you decided what club you want to join?" Maqui asked with a curious look on his face.

"I'm not sure but I think I might join the Disciplinary Committee. I was worried about being the only newcomer there but seeing as Hope is there I think I will join." Noel said with a nod to himself.

"Well then welcome to the club." Snow said with a grin on his face.

Lightning noticed that Hope was holding his arm a little which caused her to worry. "Hope. Are you okay?" She asked before she could stop herself shocking everyone.

"I'm fine just feeling a little sore from earlier is all." Hope said with an unconvincing smile on his face.

"Well if that's the case you don't have to go to today's meeting. Just go straight home and rest." Light's statement was final and he had no reason to argue.

"Okay then I'll be sure to rest up." Hope said with a huge smile toward his crush.

Lightning saw the look on Hope's face and started to feel her face turn red. She quickly turned her head only to notice Serah smirking at her.

Hope decided to change the subject with what he had been meaning to ask everyone. "Hey you guys. I was talking to my parents about you all last night and they were wondering if you guys can all come over this weekend on Saturday for dinner..." He asked embarrassed and looking down at his lunch as he felt everyone's eyes on him.

Everyone was quiet and didn't say a word making Hope feel very uncomfortable. Just when he was about to say something someone spoke up. "We'll go. Serah and I will at least. Right Serah?" Light said with a small tilt of her head while still covering her reddening cheeks.

'_Why am I embarrassing myself so much today? It's all this new kid's fault._' Light felt so uncomfortable she tried to never show much emotions because when she was a kid everyone made fun of her for crying so much. '_I can deal with this problem some other time. Maybe this will go away once I'm use to Hope being around. He's a good kid and I'm sure we can be good friends._'

"Yeah. Since Saturday is Lightning's turn to cook and I don't feel like eating steak this week which is like the only thing she knows how to cook." Serah said with a laugh as Lightning glared at her.

"If Serah is going then I'll be going too!" Snow shouted happy hugging his girlfriend close.

"Where Snow goes NORA goes too! Plus with a thing like free food I don't think we can really refuse." Maqui said as the rest of the members of team NORA agreed.

"Snow, like I said to Fang, no PDA." Light said with a sharp glare to the boy who quickly dropped his arms from Serah and starting to whine.

"Are you going to come too, Noel and Yeul?" Hope asked as he ignored Snow whining about Light being unfair.

"If it's okay with you we would love to come." Yeul said as she smiled to Noel who smiled back.

"Of course you can come too. You two are our friends now." Hope responded smiling to the two. Hope noticed how Yeul and Noel acted almost like a couple but they didn't seem be dating.

"Then we will be there too." Noel responded with a nod feeling like him and Yeul were finally making more friends and one of which seemed to be in his grade.

After Hope told everyone the time to be there the bell rang and they all had to go to class with Serah reminding Hope to rest and not strain himself.

"So, what class are you in Hope?" Noel asked after Yeul went to her class leaving the two boys by themselves.

"I'm in class 1-A. What about you?" Hope responded and asked the brown-haired boy.

"I'm in 1-A as well so I guess we are in the same class!" Noel said with a grin and a laugh.

Hope laughed along with the boy as they walked to class. They did seem to get along very well and became quick friends. Once they reached their classroom they sat down in their seats and got ready for class.

Hope felt better than earlier after he rested but he was very glad that Lightning let him just go straight home when school was over._ 'I'll tell Mom that my friends are coming over when I get home today and then I'll go straight to bed. There are only two more days left before the weekend and then my parents can meet my friends. It's so hard to believe almost four weeks have passed since this school year has started and I already have many friends.'_

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**This chapter was hard to write but it was fun because I got to write embarrassed Lightning. The characters mentioned or introduced are Yeul, Noel and Nabaat! Yeul and Noel are major characters in this and Nabaat is just a side character. **

**I will try to update sooner but I don't when I will be able to work on this because of my trip but I'll try.**

**Also if you see any errors or incorrect spelling please tell me. Also I accept constructive criticism so if you have any feel free to tell me.**

**Please review! I'm not a bad person and will give everyone hugs~**

**Thank you and love you all~ ^_^**


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